On 15-Oct-14 20:19, Mike Borgelt wrote:
The people at SpaceX are actually testing landing the first stage
under power back at the launch pad or on a barge at sea for re-use.
They've actually proved they can re-enter the booster and soft land it
in the ocean as well as flying supply missions the the ISS. They
aren't getting much coverage in the MSM but are making government
space and old space companies look incompetent.
SpaceX have soft landed stage 1 into the Atlantic twice now (possibly
three times but the evidence is not 100% for their second attempt).
Their first attempt unfortunately spun up and the centripetal reaction
caused the fuel to migrate in the tanks and starve the engines. They are
going to attempt a soft landing of stage 1 (on to a barge?) this year
and have announced plans to recover stage 2 this way also.
They are seriously undercutting people like ULA in the low and
geostationary orbit launch area. A launch with SpaceX is about 10% of a
ULA launch price from figures I have seen quoted. They are very much the
company to watch in the space!
And it's an Elon Musk company, like Tesla.
--
*Note: I am changing my email address - please only use my gmail address
from now on! *
*
*Robert Hart [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>*
+61 438 385 533
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